Nigeria says post begging for free ventilators “unauthorised”

Nigerian Government has said the post requesting for free ventilators from Elon Musk, a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman, was unauthorised.

Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, Finance Minister spokesman, said “fact of the post is regrettable because of which it is brought down.”

“We have made sure our internal processes are strengthened that such doesn’t happen again,” Abdullahi said.

“The error is highly regrettable,” he added.

This is coming hours after a post on the verified Twitter handle of finance ministry sought  the help of Musk who was willing to give out some ventilators for free.

Musk said his company Tesla is offering free ventilators to hospitals around the world.

“We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device shipping cost are free,” Musk tweeted.

“Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse,” he said.

Nigeria’s finance ministry, in a response to the tweet, tweeted for the support of the businessman requesting for the free ventilators.

“Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria,” Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning tweeted.

Before it was taken down, the tweet had already generated mixed reactions on social media.

Critics say it was totally wrong for the government to have made such requests openly, while some others believed the government had only acted that way due to the scarcity of the vents.